Democrats can no longer assume young Floridians will vote blue, highlighting the need for the party to learn how to sway voters through social media, renowned political analyst Susan MacManus said during the Capital Tiger Bay Club’s post-election deep dive.
Florida remains a bellwether in the diversity of its demographic makeup, the professor emerita at the University of South Florida said on Monday, pointing to the growing political division among Gen Zers and millennials. The two generations make up 35% of the state’s electorate.
“This used to be solid, solid blue territory but, look, there’s only a plurality of both. The Gen Zers and millennials are NPAs [voters with no partisan affiliation], but there’s almost no difference, a 1% difference, between registered young Democrats and young Republicans,” she said. “Unbelievable, and nobody was paying a bit of attention to what was happening on the age front.”
According to voter registration data MacManus compiled, a higher percentage of millennials and Gen Z voters identify as NPAs, 33% and 32%, respectively. When it comes to the GOP and Florida Dems, the rates are equal for millennials at 32%. Meanwhile, Democrats hold only a one percentage point advantage over Republicans in Gen Z registered voters.
“Usually, you think of the new voters as largely young and largely Democratic, but they certainly were not in our state,” MacManus said.
Between the 2024 and 2020 elections, there were shifts in technology and communication that President-elect Donald Trump took advantage of to appeal to a broader electorate of new voters, such as his appearance on the Joe Rogan podcast, MacManus said.
“Technology changed, people changed, issues changed. It’s never a good idea to go back to the last previous election, particularly in a state like Florida that changes its demographics so fast and rely upon that kind of strategy to win a current election,” she said, referring to traditional methods of campaigning, such as canvassing, compared to the conservative media ecosystem.
‘Very silent, very quiet base’
To Florida State University students in the crowd, MacManus’ analysis of young voters made sense.
Lauren Klostreich, a senior political science student, said she noticed more consistent tabling from the Democratic groups but that the campus chapter of Turning Point USA was able to get much more attention when it hosted former U.S. House Rep. Matt Gaetz in October.
“At table events, I really want to stop there if I already agree with the party, so I’ll go for the free donuts occasionally. But like, the Matt Gaetz thing, I knew people from both parties who were going,” she said.
Another student, Alyssa Yon, pointed to the assassination attempt against Trump in Pennsylvania as another instance in which she saw how conservative her peers were.
“I feel like it was unearthing like a very silent, very quiet base happening there that I was not aware of because I’m from Orlando proper, and I don’t see that every day,” she said.
–Michael Moline, Florida Phoenix
Pogo says
@Or
Or a lot of broke ass young men who can’t get laid punished women in general, and VP Harris in particular. I wonder what trump’s appeal to them could be…
JimboXYZ says
Social media won’t save the Democrats for votes, faith & trust is never really rebuilt regardless of what anyone says. Would anyone believe any future Democrat misinformation on any social media platform after the last 4+ years of the DC Swamp Democrats.
In other news, Biden pardons son Hunter Biden. Guess with Democrats, Hunter Biden is above the law. That was lie #1, Nobody is above the law. Lie #2, Biden won’t pardon his son. After Kamala Harris lost there was nobody but Biden to pardon Hunter. He also said that before the DNC couped Joe out of the re-election incumbent slot. The narcissism of the Biden’s is astonishing, Merry Christmas Hunter, avoiding this one is avoiding stepping in the pile of dog poop in the yard. But he’s Hunter Biden, he’ll screw up again, that’ll be the pile of dog poop on his shoe that day.
Al says
If the democrats tried to earn votes instead of trying to sway them or manipulation of every sentence they might connect. I’ve been very hopeful thar the young people I meet have gone more conservative. The hairbrained things coming out of the democrats have damaged them beyond imagination.
The dude says
Oh dear… Jimbo whining about lying… when he openly and enthusiastically supports one of the most prolific liars in history.
This is but one of many many many reasons these people can’t be taken seriously.
There is no logic that can reach them, no morals, principles, or ethics to be used to shame them. They are monolithic, willfully stupid, and have childish notions of how the world actually works.
They are toddlers in every sense of the word, and they refuse to cede control of the world they set on fire to those who would work to put that fire out.
It’s time for the olds to go enjoy the retirement they worked so hard to make sure no one who comes after them gets… and let those who would fix their messes do so.
Samuel L. Bronkowitz says
Hahaha, the solution is to “sway them with social media” lmao seriously this is some smoothbrained thinking, imagine the absolute lack of object permanence required to draw that conclusion.
Land of no turn signals says says
Maybe gen-z has more common sense than we give them credit for.
The dude says
“They’re eating the pets”
“They’re sending the hurricanes to MAGA areas” (a Floriduh representative just recently introduced a bill to outlaw the NOAA from “controlling the weather”… this was a real thing)
It really doesn’t get much more “harebrained” or stupid than that.
Judith G. Michaud says
Jimbo, tRump is way above the law, with 34 felony convictions! When he goes to jail, then talk to me about the Felon! Bravo to Joe Biden!
feddy says
Really Bravo Joe Biden? The Biden family is corrupt, but they are not the only ones, Pelosi’s, Cheney’s, Kerry’s and you have noticed there are republicans on this list and honestly the Trumps can be added to it. My problem is people are so tunnel vision they can’t make a honest assessment. Funny thing is Joe did exactly what every democrat swore up and down Trump would do when he left office and that was pardon his family. Watch what happens next, Biden will pardon his brother. One of the biggest problems in todays dumb down social media first society is people can’t think for themselves, they get their opinions from Fox, CNN, MSNBC and the view which are all one sided or the ever trustworthy Twitter.
Greed over people says
Nah average American can’t read at more than a 6th grade level. Educated people don’t vote for rapist convicts unless it will save them millions of dollars. Young people don’t have a future other than survival. Profits over people
Ed P says
Greed over people,
Why not use your real name if you really believe that the average American can’t read above a 6th grade level? Actually it’s somewhere between 7th and 8th grade. Still a serious problem.
Second, I’m confident that many of the 77 million voters are very educated/intelligent. All democrats should search for the reasons they lost the election instead of continuing the name calling and spreading of negative vitriol. Learn from your failures.
Finally, all Americans should focus on restoring the American dream by reuniting and having real conversations with each other. Maybe the American dream stumbled because, United we stand and divide we fall.
We owe the American dream to our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.
JimboXYZ says
“whining about lying…”
Context here, I wasn’t whining about the lies. here’s the context. Hunter has been evading taxes close to a decade ? He plead guilty in September 2024 for all of that. He failed to pay $ 1.4 million in taxes, the whole process took nearly a decade to get to this pardon. Take the recent Ormond Beach, FL woman that embezzled $ 1.5 million over about 6 months. She was facing 60 years prison for that. In the time Hunter Biden’s reversal of the plea deal that was in effect a pardon with no jail time, the legal system processed the Ormond Beach woman and she not only is serving her prison sentence of 4 years, she has to pay back every penny with interest. I’m just saying Biden pardoning his son with talk that was a witch hunt, a targeting for being his son is just the most asinine statements Biden made publicly on Sunday. Did Hunter even get sentenced & when was that alleged sentencing supposed to start even ? Apparently if one is caught stealing that sum of money form the government, there is no penalty when Daddy Biden gifts a pardon in his back pocket just for this occasion ? Certain folks are above the law. And Biden had every intention of pardoning his son since it got this far. Had Biden not been removed by the DNC machine, Kamala Harris as POTUS would’ve pardoned Hunter. She lost Nov 5, that meant Joe Biden had 80+ days to accomplish what he intended to do when the felony counts verdict was reached, The IRS case was going to be covered as a mere formality too. Why would Biden pardon going back to Obama-Biden era administrations, unless everything we all now know to be true about the other crimes that Hunter & Joe Biden were involved in are off the table for prosecution with a blanket pardon ? How many drug addicts do you know of get that level of leniency ? Most every accusation the Biden-Harris admin, even HRC era candidacy including the Trump-Pence admin, has said about Trump has been fabricated nonsense. The 34 counts, they tried to jail Trump for consecutive years that would have been a life sentence to tamper with the 2024 election. I don’t blame Trump for 2020, the evidence is overwhelming what the DNC machine pulled off. The DNC party can never restore that good faith. The victims are the rest of us for Biden inflation. As Biden leaves the WH, he most assuredly will spend money for the Biden agenda, sandbagging the Trump-Vance administration.
https://www.news-journalonline.com/story/news/courts/2024/07/18/ex-security-first-accountant-gets-4-years-in-prison-in-1-5m-theft-in-ormond-beach/74455854007/